1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an Internet facsimile (to be referred to as Internet FAX hereinafter) apparatus for transmitting and receiving images by Internet FAX via the Internet, a network system having the apparatus, and a method of controlling the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, images can be transmitted and received by connecting to the Internet via a LAN and using the Internet FAX mode requiring no communication charge.
The Internet FAX has the Simple Mode in which TIFF files are transmitted and received by e-mail.
Unfortunately, the above conventional system cannot transmit with optimum Internet FAX capability for the reasons explained below.
(1) The system cannot detect the type of Internet FAX capability of a communication partner during Internet FAX communication.
(2) Images transmittable in the Simple Mode are restricted to A4, 200 dpi, and MH.
(3) The system cannot detect whether a receiving apparatus has received and printed out an image.
The present invention has been made to solve the above conventional problems, and has as its object to provide an Internet FAX apparatus having an Internet FAX function capable of transmitting with optimum Internet FAX receiving capability requiring no communication charge by (1) requesting a capability of the apparatus (2) notifying a communication partner of the Internet FAX receiving capability of the apparatus in the Internet FAX mode, (3) transmitting an image file corresponding to the Internet receiving capability of a receiving apparatus, and (4) notifying a transmitting apparatus of the result of reception, a network system having the Internet FAX apparatus, and a method of controlling the apparatus.
To achieve the above object, frame information of a T30 DIS signal is carried on the mdn (message disposition notification) message format of the SMTP protocol, and a header storing the Internet FAX receiving capability of the Internet FAX apparatus of the present invention is formed. This Internet FAX apparatus comprises (1) means for transmitting an mdn request which inquires a receiving apparatus of its Internet FAX receiving capability before transmission of an Internet FAX image message, (2) means for notifying a transmitting apparatus of the Internet FAX capability of the Internet FAX apparatus by storing it in the header of the mdn, in response to the mdn request inquiring the Internet FAX capability from the transmitting apparatus, (3) means for receiving this mdn response, (4) means for transmitting an image file in accordance with the Internet FAX receiving capability of the receiving apparatus, (5) means for transmitting a message requesting the receiving apparatus to transmit reception confirmation, and (6) means for transmitting the reception confirmation message in response to the reception confirmation request from the transmitting apparatus.
The mdn is a standard system scheduled to be formed into RFC by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). The mdn defines a format by which the transmitting side requests the receiving side to transmit the processing result of e-mail and the receiving side responds to the request. Details are described in Internet-Draft xe2x80x9cAn Extensible Message Format for Message Disposition Notificationsxe2x80x9d draft-ietf-receipient-mdn-07.txt.
In the present invention with the above arrangement, (1) a transmitting apparatus can transmit an image file with optimum Internet FAX receiving capability and (2) a receiving apparatus can notify the transmitting apparatus of the completion of reception.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.